Ben de la Cruz

Ben de la Cruz is an award-winning documentary video producer and multimedia journalist. He joined NPR as the multimedia editor for the Science Desk in June 2012. In this role, he serves as the visual architect for NPR's coverage of health, science, environment, energy, food and agriculture.

De la Cruz began his career as a multimedia journalist at washingtonpost.com in January 2000. During his 12-year career there, he helped create the newspaper industry's groundbreaking multimedia site, Camera Works. Along the way, he managed the dozen-person multimedia and documentary video departments, overseeing feature and news reporting.

While at washingtonpost.com, de la Cruz's series of 12 profiles about racial identity for the Being a Black Man project won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. The award marked the first time a newspaper won what is widely considered as the Pulitzer Prize of broadcast journalism.

His reporting on the multimedia project Under Suspicion: Voices About Muslims In America work has been recognized with a National Edward R. Murrow Award. He has also received three National Emmy Award nominations for his work on Top Secret America (2010), Living with PTSD (2007) and Being A Black Man (2006).

Prior to joining The Washington Post, de la Cruz worked as an independent producer for public television, a print reporter covering the Internet industry, and a freelance photography reviewer for Photo District News magazine. He has also co-produced and written songs released by Sony Music, Dischord and DCide Records.

De la Cruz is also a sought-after speaker and has won numerous awards for his documentary video editing and cinematography from The National Press Photographers' Association, The White House News Photographers' Association, Pictures of the Year International and the Webby's to name a few.

Misha Friedman began training his lens on tuberculosis patients in the former Soviet Union in 2007, when he worked in logistics for the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders.

At first he took photos in his spare time, whiling away his off days by documenting the patients and hospital workers he met on the job. But this hobby quickly turned into more than that when he won a photo competition judged by renowned photojournalist Gary Knight, founder of the VII photo agency.